richie’s bones!

found a broken baby rabbit skull next to a dead robin

I found a little duck sternum in the woods today

I’m gonna salt preserve two of the legs (the other two pretty much fell apart in my hands during cleaning) and I’m gonna rot down the head to get the skull. poor little guy

found a dead woodpecker

edit: apparently sharks don’t have bones lmao I had no idea

found a cool crab claw on the beach

my third opossum skeleton lol. I found it half buried in the woods, not sure what else to say. it’s not the deer skull I keep hoping for but I love opossums so I’m very happy hehe. named them Calabash after the town I found them in

my bone haul from a hiking trail today! the largest bone is just over a foot long and it’s the width of my arm. I highly suspect that it’s the tibia of a bear, which is really really cool (two of the smaller bones are broken off pieces of the bear bone). the second largest bone appears to be the tibia of a deer. the hourglass-shaped bone is a snapping turtle humerus. the long one at the bottom is a pork rib, which isn’t super interesting but bones are bones. the last one is a piece of a deer vertebrae I think

found a dead mole, super cool. I’d take it but I’m 11 hours from home and I don’t particularly like the idea of keeping a rotting animal with me for two whole weeks and then in the long car ride back lol. kinda sucks, a mole skeleton would be super cool

I have to take a break from degreasing them since I’ll be on vacation for two weeks, but I’m really excited to go bone hunting there! I hope to find some neat new animal bones that I wouldn’t see where I live

yeah hydrogen peroxide is perfect for whitening bones! it should take from a few days to a week or two to whiten up, depending on 1) how brown it is and 2) personal preference to how white you want it. if the jaw starts to get yellow and greasy in a few months, let them soak in clear dish soap and warm water for as long as it takes (change the solution every so often when it gets pretty cloudy). normally it’s better to do that before whitening, but it really isn’t a problem :)

I just realized I switched around the radius+ulna and the humerus on the right side lol oops

today was my 18th birthday and I got a bat skeleton and a turtle skull! I named the bat Momo after the lemur from ATLA and I named the turtle Tuck because my friend wouldn’t stop singing the Wonder Pets theme song

I found this in my driveway along with the rabbit’s heart (I didn’t keep it) so I decided to try salt curing for the first time. six weeks later I think it worked really well! I can feel all the little paw bones and the claws under the skin, and the fur is super soft